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Mike
K
(8/5/01 12:45:00 pm)
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Owens, July
22-25
Sunday July 22 was quite stable, with late launches and low
altitudes. Robert and I headed out after Whitney Portal and flew to
the Manzanar airport strip. Monday was perhaps the best potential
weather with a strong ENE. I got off about 10:30 and got stuck low
on Whitney Portal and again on Kearsarge. Raleigh (the Lone Pine
local) passed me up about Lookout by staying high as possible on the
back ridges. Running the typical ridges and knees, I hit some
extraordinarily rough air at Lookout and headed out fearing the
required use of my reserve. It took all of my strength to maintain
any semblance of approximate directional control. I spiraled down at
the biggest, flattest, dirt field near Aberdeen and managed to land
downwind, breaking a downtube (the wind both to the North and South
of there were both blowing the opposite direction to Aberdeen).
Raleigh flew out to the Cyotes (the range just to the South of
Bishop) and was at 13K over Round Valley, in a position to make
Wheeler Crest and fly N to Mammoth. However, he was nice enough to
fly back to Bishop for the convenience of our chase.
Tue.
was lighter than Mon. but with similar easterly winds. Franz
launched first and was a ridge or two in front of Robert and me, as I
tried to stay high as possible on the ridge and avoid the nastiness
of the lower knees seen on the previous day's flight. Again the best
lift often was found in the middle of the valleys with this Easterly
wind. Altitudes reached were above 16-17K on the second half of the
Sierras, with personal bests (for the Sierras) coming at
Birch-Cyotes area of 17.6-18K. The view of the Palisades Glacier
area from those heights was really breath taking (why didn't I have
my wing mounted camera for this one?). Our paths diverged some in
our routes Northward, but I ended up the highest at about 11.5K
in-between Mt Tom and Wheeler Crest. Although I could have made it
to either and gotten up easily, I decided to land as the now
predominant North-NW was blowing the clouds at 20 mph southward,
making further Northerly progress quite difficult. I set down in
the north end of Round valley with Franz and Robert (had a hard time
finding sink near the field) for 72mi. On their way to Tuttle Creek,
Leo and Greg coincidentally drove by this field while we were
breaking down.
Second installment later...?
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Hangfly
(7/31/01 10:21:06 pm)
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Owens Valley
Recap - 7/26-30
Matt and I arrived Thursday, July 26, after driving
over nine hours. Pilots who were already there reported good flights
of medium distances. John DeAguiar had flown 50 miles that day.
Friday I volunteered to drive thinking it would give me a rest
from the drive down to the Owens. Turns out I could have flown if I
hadn’t left my glider in camp. There were spare drivers. Launch
conditions varied as the day went on. Early launchers sunk out,
including Leo who landed in a field with steers and bulls in it.
Matt launched late, around 12:30 and flew past Boundary Peak out
into the Nevada desert. By 12:45 launch was shut down due to
downwind conditions. Driving chase all day is no break. It’s
physically much easier to fly six hours.
Saturday high pressure
was beginning to be felt. Miles were there for those who wanted to
work for them. Mike flew 80 miles, mostly down the valley.
Equipment problems were also felt Saturday. When I put my
harness on, all ready to launch, my Camelback broke open and
drenched all my gear and me. I chose not to fly wet. Leo suffered a
similar fate. John B. and Greg had radio problems. Bob Stanley had an
oxygen fitting failure. Mike had harness problems causing him to fly
almost upright most of his flight. It seems that there was more but
I can’t recall what. It was Matt’s turn to drive. He got to go to
Lone Pine airport and pick up Bob Stanley.
Sunday we opted for
Black Eagle due to early morning southwesterly winds at Horseshoe
Meadows. It turned out to be the right call as Walt’s launchers
reported short flights to Lake Diaz. Stability was really taking its
toll. Three of the five in our group sunk out. Mike flew over 37
miles. I got up to 9000’ and flew around the area for more than an
hour but didn’t go anywhere.
Other highlights of the trip:
Being in the desert - It’s endlessly entertaining once you get
past the elements.
Camping at Tuttle Creek - We found a shady
spot by the creek that was 20 degrees cooler that the air ten feet
above it. The water we were playing in was snow about an hour
earlier. Some camp neighbors brought us fresh cooked trout that was
caught 20 minutes earlier. It was great!
Learning about
persistence and preparedness - Those pilots who were prepared and who
wanted it bad enough got long flights. There were no easy days. I
could have flown somewhere Sunday if had better maps.
It would be
fun to live closer to the Owens Valley. Matt and I decided that it’s
impossible to get very close to it due to the vastness of the place.
You’re either in it or you’re a ways away.
Charley
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MattsFlyin
(8/2/01 12:27:20 pm)
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"Slicing thru
the Owen's" or "Dog Leg Right Flight"
Just a quick note on my flight on Friday, 7/27. I virtually tied my
personal best of 124.2 miles, however I only made 107 from Walt's.
After reaching Basalt I had to decide whether to go straight towards
Tonopah Junction (my current longest) or follow the clouds and hope
for more! I could have definitely beat my best by just gliding
towards T. J., but the lift was along another line. Cloudstreets
from Miller Mtn stretched for miles and miles! My chase crew
silently hoped I wouldn't make it! I didn't and had to bail to
highway 6 about 15 miles east of Basalt. More later since my lunch
is over.
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MattsFlyin
(8/3/01 12:46:12 pm)
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"Floggin' Flyin"
or "Beginner Mega X/C"
So where was I? Oh yeah, before slicing thru the Owen's all us
rookie super duper x/c wannabees (you know who you are!) picked Mike
K's brain clean in hope's of making that elusive 100 miler. Of
course all the info in the world can't make up for good (lucky)
timing. This was made evident by the frequency and quality of good
pilots sinking out before even getting to Whitney Portal. This was
also evidenced by the fact that some never got a chance to launch
due to west winds on launch. That leaves the fortunate few who had a
chance. John "O' Eagles" De Aguiar (sorry if I mispelled), Bob
"Stamina" Stanley and of course your storyteller "Smokin' (It All)"
Matt Ja-whatever. I'm not sure who else had a chance but I flew
between, behind and ultimately ahead of the aforementioned few. To
be continued...
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Leo
Jones
(8/3/01 11:29:50 pm)
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Matt's Epic
flight.
>My chase crew silently hoped I wouldn't make it!
No we
did not!
We wanted you to fly to Austin, or Idaho if the
lift went that far! Course we would never have let you forget, what
fun we all had, hour after hour, mile after mile, mountain range
after mountain range, following you, and trying to figure out where
it was you were heading next!
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Vince Endter
(7/31/01)
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Flying the Owens 07/28/01
Bob Blazer and I arrived at the Tuttle Creek campground at 10:00 PM
Thursday. About half the Sonoma Wings pilots were at Horseshoe
Meadows and the other half were at Tuttle Creek. We got up to
Walt's by 9:30 Friday morning. Most of the guys from Horseshoe
Meadows were setting up. Several pilots launched between 11:00 and
11:45 and found little lift and very rough air and soon sunk out or
left for safer air. About 5 more pilots launched between 11:45 and
noon and found lift right out in front of launch. Matt was one of
them and made it past his goal of Basalt. Most of the others got to
17,000 feet over the Sierras, although I don't think anyone other
than Matt made it to the Whites. After noon the wind at launch
started to blow down strong through the gap in the road even though
it was still blowing up at launch. About 8 of us bagged it.
Saturday we got up to launch at about the same time as Friday. A
couple of pilots launched before 11:00. One sunk out to the postage
stamp. I launched next at 11:00. I found light lift over the
southeast end of the ridge directly across from launch. I slowly
worked my way back over launch. I made 11,000' behind launch and
headed up the Sierras. The lift was very broken. It felt like most of
the time I could not complete a 360 in lift, but I still was getting
to 13,000' most of the time. I could feel the westerly wind at
13,000'. It was supposed to be 8 knots, but it felt much
stronger. I always left at 13,000' for the next ridge because it
was so rough. I was getting annoyed by the rough broken lift and
started to skip ridges. The sink was not to bad and I was able to
make a couple of ridges above 12,000'.
At Onion valley I hit my first big sink. The wind at this point was
west over the Sierras at more than 20 mph. I had to angle about 45
degrees toward the Sierras to maintain my ground track. I decided I
was no longer having fun so I headed out to the valley. A couple of
miles north of Independence over 395 I found a nice smooth thermal
that took me to 10,000'+. From there I followed 395 figuring I
was going to land soon. Each time I got low I found another weak
smooth thermal that would let me glide another couple of miles. At
Big Pine I thought I could make it to Black so I headed that way. As
I went up the face of Black I started to hit the same trashy lift I
had left on the Sierras so I went back over the valley. Most of the
time I was between 6 and 7 thousand. After each thermal I left, I was
sure I was about to land.
Just short of the town of Laws, I got real low. I unzipped to land
and then found a thermal. When I zipped up, my kneepad got stuck in
my zipper and I was unable to get the zipper up. The winds on the
ground the entire day were light and variable. There was no
detectable drift in the thermals. I was low again half way between
Laws and Chalfant. Bob B. was right below me and reported winds on
the ground between 5 and 10 mph. I decided this was a good time to
land. I was not very comfortable with my harness partially zipped.
When I unzipped again, my kneepad fell out of my harness and almost
hit a car on highway 6. I hit another thermal but decided to land
anyway. I had a nice landing and found my kneepad about 50' away.
I was right at 70 miles from Walt's. 40 of those miles were low
up the valley. Total flight time was 4 hours.
The first part of the flight was less than enjoyable. A lot of work
in what Leo called evil air. Once I got out to the valley I was
having a great time. Most of the thermals could be worked with one
hand. Bob B. was able to keep up with me. As I worked my way from
Black to Laws, I was able to direct him on which road to take to pick
me up if I went down. He did a fantastic job. This was his first time
driving in the Owens Valley. After I was back on the truck, we called
Mike K. who was still in the air and said we could chase him if
needed. His truck was heading for Bishop anyway so he declined. After
6 hours of flying, we could still here him on the radio. He was just
passing the spot I had landed. He made 80 miles.
The weather for Sunday looked worse than Saturday, which was worse
than Friday. We decided to drive home Sunday so we would not lose
another day's pay.
Vince
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